LSU Coach Quits Amid Player Sex Scandal

Pokey Chatman resigned as the head women's basketball coach at Louisiana State University on Wednesday after the university became aware of an alleged inappropriate sexual relationship between Chatman and a former player on Chatman's team, sources told ESPN.com. The university, the sources said, learned of the relationship from an employee within the basketball program.
ESPN.com's attempts to reach the employee by telephone and e-mail on Thursday night were unsuccessful.

Chatman, who initially revealed plans to quit after the postseason, says she will not coach the Lady Tigers in the NCAA Tournament. In a statement released Thursday afternoon, Chatman said: "My resignation yesterday has prompted speculation and rumors that far exceeded my expectations and it is clear that my presence would be a great distraction during the NCAA Tournament."

Assistant coach Bob Starkey, who will take over the team for now, declined to say whether he was aware of any improper conduct.

"There's been 20 to 25 things that are just floating out there, and I think she thought if she just stepped away from it she could eliminate that from even multiplying," Starkey said. "She has her reasons, and hopefully, soon she'll address that herself.''

LSU athletic director Skip Bertman told the Times Picayune of New Orleans, which first reported Chatman's alleged misconduct with one or more players Thursday on its Web site, that no formal inquiry into Chatman's conduct had been opened by the university. He did acknowledge, though, that an informal investigation "might have happened."

"The girl did what she did and LSU had no control over that," Bertman said, referring to Chatman.

Starkey said Chatman did venture onto the LSU campus Thursday to tell the team she would not coach them during the NCAA Tournament.

"Certainly the kids were disappointed to get the news. Pokey recruited all of those kids either as head coach or as an assistant," Starkey said. "These are not just good basketball players, they're good kids, and I think they're very close, and I think that will help us to try and move forward with it."

Players have been off-limits to the media since the announcement.

Starkey said he and players were caught off-guard when Chatman told the team Wednesday that she wanted to pursue other career opportunities after this season.

"She came in and said for personal reasons some opportunities had come available to her -- that it was something she needed to move on,'' Starkey said.

The No. 10 Lady Tigers (26-7) upset then-No. 2 Tennessee last week in the Southeastern Conference tournament before falling to Vanderbilt in Sunday's tournament final. Chatman is 90-14 as LSU's head coach. Before that, she was 15-5 as acting head coach during the latter stages of the 2003-04 season, when longtime coach Sue Gunter left the team because of lung disease. That included a trip to the Final Four in New Orleans, where the Lady Tigers fell in the semifinals to Tennessee.
Chatman, a Louisiana native, has been at LSU as both a player and coach for nearly 18 years.

Playing guard, she was one of LSU's career assist and steals leaders. After her playing career ended in 1991, she spent one season as a student assistant coach and then 12 seasons as associate coach under Gunter.

LSU won SEC regular-season titles in her first two seasons as a head coach and made it to the Final Four both years.

In 2005, Chatman received a four-year contract extension that pays her close to $400,000 a year plus postseason bonuses ranging from $15,000 for making the NCAA Tournament to $70,000 for winning a national title. The highest-paid coaches in women's college basketball, Pat Summitt of Tennessee and Geno Auriemma of Connecticut, both earn more than $1 million per year.